Overview

Public hospital CHR de la Citadelle (Centre Hospitalier Régional) is one of the largest hospitals in the Liège region. It is located on three sites (Citadelle, Sainte-Rosalie and Château Rouge) and every year some 600,000 people benefit from its services. The hospital group is also one of the largest employers in the region with approximately 3,530 employees and more than 490 doctors. The primary objective of CHR Liège is to provide qualitative and efficient care, while maintaining strong productivity.

To achieve its mission, the hospital is increasingly calling on technology. ‘Technology permeates everything today in one form or another’, explains Benoit Degotte, CIO and CFO of CHR de la Citadelle. ‘Think of the Internet of Things (IoT), connectivity, mobile apps, everything to do with security and big data ... We also see enormous developments and the importance of technology in the hospital, in the medical field, in the area of logistics and energy management. Technology helps the hospital to evolve and modernise in the best conditions.’

Challenges

A hospital faces many challenges. ‘One of those involves a different approach. Today, patients have different needs than ten years ago’, adds Benoit Degotte. ‘Their care takes place quicker and more efficiently, reducing the time they spend in the hospital. Today’s patients are also much better informed than they used to be. Medical care is therefore becoming more personal and must respond to the challenges in the field of information, treatment times and technological complexity. Hospitals need to adapt to those challenges.’

CHR de la Citadelle has developed a strategic plan that includes investment in the renewal and modernisation of the hospital. ‘It involves the building and mobility, but also technology, such as reducing the number of apps’, says Benoit Degotte. Furthermore, the hospital faces challenges in the area of data storage, due to the decision taken to store all data in a remote data centre and the possible impact this has on security. GDPR is another new challenge facing a medical organisation that works with very sensitive and personal data. ‘All those challenges also have an impact on the IT team. The content and tasks involved in the work have evolved dramatically. Developers have progressively become “integrators” who have to be able to understand the needs of patients and an ever-widening group of users and develop qualitative, intuitive apps to meet their demands.’

"We use all the Trend Micro tools to protect our workstations, the network and our cloud environment, as well as the solution for virtual patching"

Thierry Genten,Data Protection Officer at CHR de la
Citadelle

Why Trend Micro

‘From a technical perspective, we needed a solution that could protect our Microsoft Office 365 suite while ensuring our compliance with GDPR legislation’, explains Thierry Genten, Data Protection Officer at CHR de la Citadelle. At the same time, CHR de la Citadelle wanted to encrypt the entire system and had drawn up a list of recommendations after a number of audits had identified transgressions. The public tender issued by the hospital stipulated the need for a simple centralised solution that was also scalable. This included integration into a security information and event management system (SIEM) and a Security Operation Centre system (SOC). A comparison of all the submitted proposals revealed that the Trend Micro solutions were the most in line with the specifications. ‘We had a hard time finding an integrated security solution for all of the tools while at the same time managing our cloud environment.’

"In a hospital, IT systems need to function optimally, 24/7 the whole year round. We have now practically eliminated the risk of downtime"

Solution

CHR de la Citadelle uses the complete security package from Trend Micro. ‘We use all the Trend Micro tools to protect our workstations, the network and our cloud environment, as well as the solution for virtual patching’, says Thierry Genten. ‘The chosen solution meets the requirements of the security platform in our strategic plan.’

"The most positive result is of course realising 360-degrees security. The Trend Micro solutions protect us against internal and external attacks, in the areas of e-mail and messaging and from the back office to the endpoints."

Results

Using the solution from Trend Micro ensures that the hospital is ready for the future. ‘We now have facilities that we did not have before, such as an intrusion detection system and virtual patching on our servers’, explains Marc Thonard, IT manager, SI Integration & Innovation at CHR de la Citadelle. ‘Imagine an attack such as Wannacry now took place. We would receive an automatic alarm signal and our network would be virtually patched, immediately and correctly. In the past, it was not even possible to immediately block ports being attacked.’ Other features that were added thanks to the Trend Micro Suite are the antivirus software on mobile endpoint devices and encryption of the storage systems. Marc Thonard: ‘The most positive result is of course realising 360-degrees security. The Trend Micro solutions protect us against internal and external attacks, in the areas of e-mail and messaging and from the back office to the endpoints.’

The main advantage for the hospital is perhaps that services can continue without delays. ‘In a hospital, IT systems need to function optimally, 24/7 the whole year round. We have now practically eliminated the risk of downtime’, claims Marc Thonard.

For the IT Department, the main advantage is the centralisation of all tools to manage the mobile devices, workstations, desktops, laptops and servers. Marc Thonard: ‘It means we also save a lot of time not having to search left and right anymore for a device that needs updating. There is one product and one central console, even for the alarms.’

The impact is that IT now works proactively instead of reactively. ‘We no longer have to chase after the incidents and problems. And this enables us to focus on business development and optimising care: the core strategy of the hospital’, concludes Thonard.